General Information

Large Projects are projects that require a total of more than 400 hours of observing time over the lifetime of the project. Please read the Large Projects web page in addition to the information on this page.

ATCA Legacy Projects

It is anticipated ATCA Legacy Projects. will continue to be allocated 25%--35% of observing time on the ATCA in 2018APR. There is no proprietary period for the raw data from Legacy Projects. This is to maximise the scientific outcomes from the large fraction of observatory time they represent, and to enable timely follow-on observations.

ATCA Observing

The default location for observing with the ATCA is the Marsfield Science Operations Centre (SOC). Observing at the ATCA will still be permitted for complex or non-standard observations, or in other circumstances where this is the more sensible option. Remote observing from other locations is permitted for suitably qualified observers. You may also observe from the Narrabri observatory, although it is now considered as a remote observing site with regard to support levels.

Array configurations

For 2018APR, the array configurations 6A, 6D, 1.5A, 1.5D, 750C, 750D, EW352, H214, H168 and H75 will be offered. The 2017OCT semester will end in EW352 array and so this may be continued for the first weeks of 2018APR: this does not preclude it from being scheduled again later in the semester. Configurations will only be scheduled if there is sufficient proposal demand for them.

CABB modes

CFB 1M: A bandwidth of 2 GHz with 2048 x 1-MHz channels in each IF band, but no "zoom" bands.

CFB 1M-0.5k: A bandwidth of 2 GHz with 2048 x 1-MHz channels and (optionally) a fine resolution of 0.5 kHz in up to 16 "zoom" bands (each with 2048 channels across 1 MHz) in each IF band.

CFB 64M-32k: A bandwidth of 2 GHz with 32 x 64-MHz channels and (optionally) a fine resolution of 32 kHz in up to 16 zoom bands (each with 2048 channels across 64 MHz) in each IF band.

CFB 1M/64M: A "hybrid" mode with 2048 x 1-MHz (but no zooms) in one IF band, and 32 x 64-MHz channels with (optionally) up to 16 zoom bands with 2048 channels across each 64 MHz in the other IF band.

Pulsar binning mode: The normal 2048 x 1 MHz continuum band is supplied for each IF band and in addition, for each IF, a time-binned IF band with 512 x 4 MHz channels and 32 time bins across the period of the pulsar. A minimum bin time of 110 micro-seconds is possible, allowing 32 bins across a 3.5 milli-second pulsar period. All observers who want to use this mode are responsible for providing their own timing ephemerides for their targets; the observatory cannot provide these for you. Ephemerides must be supplied in the tempo2 predictor format.

High time-resolution mode: The normal 2048 x 1 MHz continuum band is supplied for each IF band and in addition, for each IF, a time-binned IF band with 512 x 4 MHz channels and either 128 or 32 time bins across the correlator cycle period (normally 10 seconds, but can be routinely set as low as 2 seconds).

VLBI backend tied-array mode: This allows you to capture up to 2 x 64 MHz dual polarisation bands with both CABB correlations and 2 bit sampled raw voltage output, using the VLBI backend and recorders. Up to 2x16 MHz dual polarisation bands with 8 bit sampled voltages is also available. If you choose to use ATCA in this mode, without requesting any other LBA station or correlation by CASS, you only need to write an ATCA proposal. This mode has some restrictions however, and proposers who are interested in using this mode must contact the LBA lead scientist Chris Phillips to discuss what is possible. You must include in your proposal a short description of how you will process the data and data transport logistics.

Compact Array receivers and frequency ranges

The 16-cm band receivers provide an instantaneous frequency coverage from 1.1 to 3.1 GHz (although the usable bandwidth is reduced by typically 30% by Radio Frequency Interference [RFI] -- the impact of RFI on the 16cm band can be seen at this webpage.). The 16-cm band receivers have an improved sensitivity over the original 20- and 13-cm receivers, and include new ortho-mode-transducers, significantly improving the polarisation performance toward the top end of the band.

The 4-cm band receivers cover the band from 4 GHz to 10.8 GHz. These receivers provide significantly improved system temperatures over the original 6- and 3-cm receivers. All antennas have new feed horns to extend the frequency coverage to 12 GHz. (A consequence of this is that the focus positions for the antennas in the 4cm band differ from those of other bands. This should be borne in mind if changing between bands during an observation. It takes about 2 minutes to refocus the antennas.)

In the 15-mm (16--25 GHz), 7-mm (30--50 GHz) and 3-mm (83.5--106 GHz) bands, two 2GHz-wide intermediate frequency bands may be selected within an 8 GHz bandwidth. In the 7-mm band, both band centres must be either greater than 41 GHz (the point at which the conversion changes from lower side-band to upper side-band) or both less than 41 GHz. Observing is possible with the standard 15-mm and 7-mm systems on all six antennas, and 3-mm systems on five antennas: there is no 3mm receiver on CA06. Note that the 3mm receivers are ageing and that, as spare parts are limited, or non-existent, component failure in a receiver may not be able to be repaired in a timely manner, or at all.

The ATCA sensitivity calculator provides a means of determining the sensitivity characteristics of observations, and can include the reduction in bandwidth expected due to RFI in the 16cm band.

Millimetre observing

Observing at 3 mm generally starts in May and ends in mid-October. Proposers are reminded that the primary flux density calibrator at 3 mm is Uranus, which in April 2018 will be near a R.A. of 1h42m and declination of +10d0m. Proposals for 3-mm observations that require accurate flux calibration should request time for observations of Uranus (if the array configuration allows). For 7-mm observations with CABB, PKS 1934-638 is sufficiently strong to be used as a primary flux density calibrator, and should be preferred over Uranus for all projects. Proposers requiring their own observations of Uranus (at special frequencies, or at a time when their main target has set, for example), should make this clear in the observations table and justification of their proposal. For secondary calibration at 3- and 7-mm, Observatory staff will calibrate a number of bright AGN, spread over the full range of R.A., against Uranus (at 3mm) and 1934-638 (at 7mm) at the standard continuum observing frequencies throughout the semester.

The array is outfitted with Water Vapour Radiometers (WVRs) provided by the University of New South Wales. Experience to date indicates that these units will, in some conditions, allow corrections to the measured phases on longer baselines to be made, improving phase stability and sensitivity. Interested mm-wavelength observers will be able to use of this capability during 2018APR. Details of the system are available at the WVR webpage.

For further information contact the ATCA Lead Scientist, Jamie Stevens (Jamie.Stevens [at] csiro.au).

Important Information

Remote observing with the Parkes telescope, either from the Marsfield Science Operations Centre (SOC) or from other locations for suitably qualified observers, is the default mode of observing. Observing from Parkes will still be permitted for complex or non-standard observations, or in other circumstances where this is the more sensible option.

It is expected that proposal teams with experienced Parkes observers will be self-sufficient, with a member of each team being designated the Project Expert and being the first point of contact (most often remotely) for questions relating to the observations after work hours. Inexperienced teams are encouraged to seek experienced collaborators: if this is not possible, the teams should be prepared to arrive several days before their observations commence in order for observer training to be completed during work hours so that a member of the team is qualified for the Project Expert role. All Parkes proposal teams are asked to nominate on the cover sheets of their proposal the member(s) in their team who will be (or will be trained to be) the Project Expert and who will be the first point of contact after hours. (However, it is recognised that the availability of team members can not be known until the observing schedule has been released.) Observers at the SOC are able to receive assistance from staff (during business hours) with their observing. Local Parkes staff will continue to provide the first point of contact for matters relating to safety of the telescope, and equipment.

The cover sheet for Parkes proposals now specifically requests this information for projects that are likely to gather more than 1 Terabyte of data per semester: such proposals must also explicitly discuss their plans for handling such data volumes in their justification. Observers are advised that they should adhere to the observing set-up described in their proposal. Any additional use of HIPSR must be discussed first with the Parkes Lead Scientist (Jimi Green).

Contracted telescope usage

Breakthrough Listen will continue to be allocated 25% of Parkes observing time, with the program having commenced in the 2016OCT semester. In 2018APR, the project will typically be scheduled as a ~10 hour block most days to the order of ~750hrs. The Breakthrough Foundation is not guaranteed any more than 30% of time at any given local sidereal time (LST) range (hour) each month. Commensal use of Breakthrough Listen data is expected to be possible (the data is not proprietary). Commensal use of Breakthrough Listen data (in 2018APR) will not require a proposal to be submitted for consideration by the ATNF Time Assignment Committee. The BPSR backend can be run simultaneously with Breakthrough Listen observations.

In addition to Breakthrough Listen continuing their 25% of telescope time allocation, a new agreement with an NAOC FAST collaboration has been made for the purchase of ~18% of time over a 3 year period, which will be an allocation of ~400 hrs in the 2018APR semester.

Receiver availability

The current plan is to have the new Ultra-wideband Low frequency receiver (UWL) installed in March 2018, towards the end of the 2017OCT semester. The intention is that the UWL will be installed instead of the 10/50, and operate along side the Multibeam (MB). As such the default receiver pairing for 2018APR will be UWL and MB, with the 10/50 to go up if the UWL has to come down, and the usual high frequency installations for VLBI weeks. The UWL will thus serve projects which traditionally request the 10/50. Specific wideband proposals are invited for the UWL on a shared risk basis for this semester, and are likely to be scheduled in the second half of the semester to allow adequate commissioning time. Please select the 'other' option in the OPAL coversheet for receiver and make note in the proposal itself. The availability of other receivers will be driven by proposal pressure. Details of the Parkes receiver fleet and other technical information are available in the Parkes Radio Telescope Users Guide.

Backend Availability

The digital filterbank DFB4 is available for pulsar, spectral line (simple and time-binning), continuum and polarisation (full Stokes) studies. DFB4 contains one CABB processor and one digitiser and has similar characteristics and performance to the original DFB3 for normal pulsar timing, but is limited for short period pulsars. The number of available frequency channels (512 to 8192) allows spectral behaviour analysis and RFI flagging. In combination with either circular or linear feeds they can be used for Stokes Q & U or Stokes V observations respectively. A time resolution down to 0.25s is achievable in time-binning mode allowing fast scanning options (though note in this mode the maximum number of channels is 4096).

CASPSR, a coherent de-dispersion pulsar backend developed by Swinburne University of Technology, is available on a shared-risk basis.

BPSR/HIPSR is available as a 13-beam digital filterbank on a similar shared-risk basis. Two spectral line modes are provided by HIPSR. These modes are (i) a bandwidth of 400 MHz on all 13 beams, with 8192 spectral channels per product and (ii) a bandwidth of 200 MHz on all 13 beams, with 16384 spectral channels per product. It is planned to reproduce the higher spectral resolution modes of the original MBCORR in the new GPU cluster at Parkes, however these are unlikely to be available until some way through 2018APR: proposers interested in these modes should contact Jimi Green (details below).

PKBE is a GPU based backend, which is intended for use with the UWL, and hosts the BPSR/HIPSR functionality. It is intended that this backend will cater for all receivers in the future. For those intending to use the UWL please include details of the backend capabilities required.

VLBI backends (Mark5B, LBADR) are available for non-LBA VLBI and single dish voltage capture. This allows you to capture up to 2 x 64 MHz or 8x16 MHz dual polarisation bands with 2 bit sampled raw voltage output, or 2x16 MHz dual polarisation bands with 8 bit sampled voltage. If you choose to use Parkes in this mode, without requesting any other LBA station or VLBI correlation by CASS, you only need to write a Parkes proposal. These modes have restrictions however, and proposers who are interested in using this must contact the LBA lead scientist Chris Phillips to discuss what is possible. You must include in your proposal a short description of how you will process the data and data transport logistics.

Further information

Proposers intending to start a new project are advised to contact the Parkes Lead Scientist, Jimi Green (James.Green [at] csiro.au), to discuss their requirements and availability of configurations before proposal submission. For further information on all Parkes facilities please refer to the Parkes Radio Telescope Users Guide.

In the 2018APR semester the 70-m and 34-m antennas at Tidbinbilla will have limited availability for single-dish use. Access to Tidbinbilla antennas is provided through the host country agreement, which provides approximately 220 hours in total each semester. This is used for both single dish (typically 180 hours per semester) and LBA (typically 40 hours per semester) use. Tidbinbilla proposals remain active for one year. All observations are taken in a service mode when scheduling permits. Successful proposals require the submission of a source list with accurate target and calibrator positions.

The 70-m antenna is equipped with 1.6, 2.3, 8.4 and 22 GHz receivers and 34-m antennas are equipped with 2.3, 8.4, 26 and 32 GHz receivers. The pointing performance of the 70-m is adequate for observations at the three lowest frequencies (1.6, 2.3 and 8.4 GHz) with no additional calibration, but observations at 22-GHz require a small overhead (~10% of observing time) for determining pointing corrections using bright AGN near the target of interest. It should be noted that the 22 GHz system is the most sensitive in the southern hemisphere, covering 18.0 to 26.5 GHz with a system temperature of 60 Jy. The 8.4 GHz system (also available on the 34-m antenna) is well-suited for radio recombination line observations.

Tidbinbilla is equipped with an ATNF multibeam correlator block capable of two polarisation products, with up to 2048 channels, each with 32 or 64 MHz bandwidth, or up to 4 polarisation products with a total of 8192 channels (e.g., 2 x 4096 channels) and bandwidth of 16 MHz or less.

The second phase of the down-converter upgrade for the 4-channel K-band receiver has recently been completed on the 70m. This new system supports two simultaneous beams per polarisation (four beams in total) across the total frequency coverage of 17 GHz to 27 GHz. An on-the-fly mapping mode has been developed for spectral line observations. The mode has been tested and demonstrated to work with observations of ammonia lines at 23 GHz and radio recombination lines at 8.3 GHz.

For the latest information of availability please refer to the Tidbinbilla website, or contact the ATNF Friend of Tidbinbilla, Helga Denes (Helga.Denes [at] csiro.au).

For 2018APR semester, the Long Baseline Array (LBA) will use the Compact Array and Parkes radio telescope, together with the Hobart and Ceduna antennas operated by the University of Tasmania. In addition, the Warkworth 12-m telescope, operated by the Auckland University of Technology, is routinely available at 13 and 3cm, and on occasions at 20cm, and the Warkworth 30-m telescope is available at 6.7 and 8.4 GHz and on a best-efforts basis at 4.8 GHz. A limited amount of time may be available with the Tidbinbilla 70-m antenna or one of the 34-m antennas. The availability of the Mopra telescope for 2018APR is currently unclear: it may be included in the requested array, but with the understanding that it may not be scheduled.. For the 2018APR semester ASKAP will be unavailable for VLBI. The AuScope Yarragadee and Katherine 12-m antennas may also be available at 13cm or 3cm subject to their availability. The Hartebeesthoek 26-m or 15-m telescopes may also be available subject to its other commitments.

It is planned in the 2018APR semester to schedule some LBA time at the same time as a European VLBI Network (EVN) session, opening the possibility of joint LBA/EVN observations. The easternmost stations of the EVN are in a similar longitude range to the LBA telescopes, and for sources in equatorial regions, baselines to western European stations are also achievable. Proposals for joint LBA/EVN observations must be submitted separately to both the LBA and EVN at their respective deadlines.

It is now possible to operate the ATCA in hybrid mode where one frequency chain is setup in VLBI mode and the other frequency chain in ATCA continuum mode (2 GHz bandwidth at 1 MHz resolution). Proposers should explicitly request this mode if they wish to use it, and provide additional scientific justification.

Constraints on Parkes receiver changes impose limits on the frequency of LBA observations with Parkes.

LBA proposers are reminded that a member (or members) of the proposal team will be required to assist with the VLBI observing on the ATNF telescopes. Please ensure that a member of the proposal team will be able to help. Note that due to logistical constraints the VLBI schedule usually is release only a few weeks before observing, so the observer will need to be qualified for remote observing with Parkes and ATCA, or able to travel to the SOC in Sydney before the LBA session in time to be trained.

Other telescopes may be also requested for special observations. Specific system availability may be dependent on availability at individual antennas. For details consult the ATNF VLBI webpages.

A Novices Guide is available for potential first-time users from the VLBI webpage.

For assistance with planning proposals and observations please consult the VLBI sensitivity calculator. This calculator is based on a Java applet and the default setting for many browsers is to not allow such applets to run, unless browser preferences are modified appropriately -- firefox appears easiest to accomplish this. Efforts are underway to develop a new version of the calculator: until that time proposers may contact Chris Phillips (details below) with any questions related to sensitivity calculations for LBA observations.

The current capabilities of the LBA are briefly outlined below:

The disk-based recording system is used for all recorded VLBI observations and data rates (up to 1 Gbps) can be achieved at most stations.

All recorded observations will be correlated with the DiFX software correlator. The software correlator is capable of correlating the high data rate observations at high spectral resolution with arbitrary correlator integration times.

Real-time e-VLBI observations are possible -- contact Chris Phillips (details below) if you are interested in this mode.

User support is available, including assistance with proposal preparation, scheduling, observing and data reduction.

A bit rate of 256 Mbps (2x16MHz bandwidth in 2 polarisations, with 2 bit digitisation and Nyquist sampling) can be sustained at all LBA telescopes and is the standard observing mode. Observations requesting higher bit rates will need to include a clear justification for the requested rate. Potential users must consult the Upgraded VLBI National Facilities capabilities .

For more information contact the LBA Lead Scientist, Chris Phillips (Chris.Phillips [at] csiro.au).